Week #2--Early Filmmakers

Last week, we spent some time watching documentaries about the representation of African Americans in popular culture, most notably in cinema. Riggs’s Ethnic Notions and Daniels’s Classified X each reveal a variety of caricatures by which many Black screen actors had to conform for nearly a century. Caricatures such as the mammy, Uncle Tom the coon, the buck, and the sambo have been re-evaluated by film scholars and cultural critics either to reinforce the condemnation of these types or to identify possibilities for subversion.

An analysis of representation inevitably transfers to a discussion about control over images, most notably about who controls them and the motives for such portrayals. In Classified X, Melvin Van Peebles explained how his increasing displeasure with the presentation of African Americans onscreen motivated him to make films that aggressively countered these practices. While his first two films directly addressed race relations (The Story of a Three Day Pass (1967), Watermelon Man (1970)), Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971) focused on a sex laborer who, while running from the police for helping a Black revolutionary escape police custody, desperate seeks an escape from both mental and physical captivity. While Van Peebles sought to make a film that was consistent with the sentiments of the Black Power movement through form and content, he also received criticism for reproducing stereotypes, notably his presentation of a sexually aggressive Black man who uses violence to escape adverse situations.

Interestingly enough, Van Peebles’s The Story of a Three Day Pass was adapted from a novel he wrote entitled La Permission. His entry into film resembles that of Oscar Micheaux, whose first film, The Homesteader (1919), was initially a novel. Micheaux saw film not only as a promising business venture, but also a more dynamic way to tell stories, many which were semi-autobiographical. Embedded within his films was a desire to depict an upwardly mobile Black middle class who aspired to be recognized as U.S. citizens. Micheaux referenced figures such as Booker T. Washington through his male protagonists, as he focused on issues such as education and literacy, racial stratification and labor, and racial terror in the form of lynching. He may have been critical of institutions such as the Black church, in which Micheaux criticized ministers for deceiving their patrons, but he was as much the subject of criticism. Not only was Micheaux frequently censored for his desire to address topics that even Black audiences found to be controversial, but later Black filmmakers and critics felt that he reinforced the color-caste system that depicted light-skinned Blacks as heroes and dark-skinned Blacks as villains.

As you watch Within Our Gates (1919), focus on what the central issues of the narrative are. It is important to note that this film was released during the period of the Great Migration, the end of World War I, the Red Summer of 1919, and the beginnings of the Harlem Renaissance and the emergence of the “New Negro.” Also, pay close attention to the central characters. How are they photographed, and what kind of space are they placed in to emphasize the way they are characterized? To continue with space, think of how Micheaux depicts the North and the South in terms of geography and the characters who are placed within these regions. What are some characteristics about the film’s production quality that show it to be deficient? At the same time, what does the limited production quality offer that is absent in mainstream films that depict Black characters?